The November-December 2008 issue of ‘Microfinance Insights’ featured the story of Ida Zossou, a young micro entrepreneur from ALIDé, our partner MFI in Benin. Ida is only 17 and now successfully juggles her business and her studies.
Read the whole story by clicking here.
If you read French press, you might have seen an article on the area of Sodom and Gomorrah, in which ID-Ghana is quoted in 'Le Monde' dated 18 December 2008.
This is for us a great opportunity to have our actions shown to a wide audience of course, but it is also a way to see the usefulness of our work recognized by an independent and objective observer, in this case the journalist Philippe Bernard .
You can download and read the pdf version here.
'Le Monde' ('The World' in English) is a prominent French daily newspaper. Learn more about it by visiting its website or reading its Wikipedia article.
Monica is a 32 year old women married with three children with their ages being 12 years old, 5 years old and 3 months. Two of the children are schooling now; the eldest is in primary 4, and the second is in the nursery. She hails from Aburi in the Eastern Region of Ghana. She was brought to Accra by her sister to work as a house help to a family who resided at Arena, a suburb of Accra. After she got married she then left her job as a house help and then joined her husband at Glefe, also in Accra. Shortly after she was married, her husband who is a business man and owns a bookshop gave her money to start selling foodstuff; he later opened a provision shop for her. Presently, she combines the provisions with the foodstuff in the shop where she sells. She usually opens her shop 6:00 a.m. and closes at 10:00 p.m.
to include frozen meat to her business. As soon as she finished paying the first loan, she took a second loan of GH¢250 which she used to in-creased her stock. With her third loan of GH¢450, she has been able to buy a deep freezer which she intends using to sell minerals and ice cream. As at now she has no money to start the minerals and ice cream business as such she would like to take a fourth loan after she finishes paying the current one so as to invest into it. She is able to make a weekly sales of a minimum of GH¢440 and a maximum of GH¢780.
Monica is so thankful to ID-Ghana for how fast her business has grown. Thanks to the organization, she has been able to expand as well as diversify her business. Her future plan is to help her husband build to a house.
Today, the Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst (or DED, one of the main German development institutions along with GTZ and KfW) visited our branch of Glefe.Mr. Kay Andraschko, Country Manager of DED and Mr. Peter Schüssler, Coordinator for S
ustainable Economic Development, came to visit one of our Onipa Nua* groups called "Dynamics".The purpose of the visit was for our German hosts to have an opportunity to understand better the nature and the extent of the work done with our partners. More than the provision of microfinance services, ID-Ghana takes indeed great pride in providing its partners with a set of services referred to as non-financial services (i.e. social and business trainings) as well as complementary services, such as referral to a network of social organisations and, last but 
not the least, linkage to the National Health Insurance Scheme (eq. to our Social Security).The reason behind this visit of Mr. Andraschko and Schüssler is the probable collaboration that will take place between our organisation and DED. The latter is indeed interested in providing a partial financing over a period of three years enabling the former to recruit as of March 2009 local senior management. A new local Director as well as a Finance and Administration Manager could thus reinforce ID-Ghana team while I would be gradually withdrawing from ID-Ghana leadership and eventually make a final handover to my successor next summer.
Beyond the financial aspect, this project is at the heart of the process of reinforcing of the institutional sustainability of the organisation and as such is a very crucial step in ID-Ghana's development. The possibility that is offered to us today to team up with DED is henceforth of strategical importance for ID-Ghana.
* 'Onipa Nua' is the name we gave to our group methodology derived from ASA methodology. It means in the local Twi language 'mutual care'.
The November-December 2008 issue of ‘Microfinance Insights’ featured the story of Ida Zossou, a young micro entrepreneur from ALIDé, our partner MFI in Benin. Ida is only 17 and now successfully juggles her business and her studies.
If you read French press, you might have seen an article on the area of Sodom and Gomorrah, in which ID-Ghana is quoted in 'Le Monde' dated 18 December 2008.
Monica is a 32 year old women married with three children with their ages being 12 years old, 5 years old and 3 months. Two of the children are schooling now; the eldest is in primary 4, and the second is in the nursery. She hails from Aburi in the Eastern Region of Ghana. She was brought to Accra by her sister to work as a house help to a family who resided at Arena, a suburb of Accra. After she got married she then left her job as a house help and then joined her husband at Glefe, also in Accra. Shortly after she was married, her husband who is a business man and owns a bookshop gave her money to start selling foodstuff; he later opened a provision shop for her. Presently, she combines the provisions with the foodstuff in the shop where she sells. She usually opens her shop 6:00 a.m. and closes at 10:00 p.m.
to include frozen meat to her business. As soon as she finished paying the first loan, she took a second loan of GH¢250 which she used to in-creased her stock. With her third loan of GH¢450, she has been able to buy a deep freezer which she intends using to sell minerals and ice cream. As at now she has no money to start the minerals and ice cream business as such she would like to take a fourth loan after she finishes paying the current one so as to invest into it. She is able to make a weekly sales of a minimum of GH¢440 and a maximum of GH¢780.
Today, the Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst (or DED, one of the main German development institutions along with GTZ and KfW) visited our branch of Glefe.
ustainable Economic Development, came to visit one of our Onipa Nua* groups called "Dynamics".
not the least, linkage to the National Health Insurance Scheme (eq. to our Social Security).
Beyond the financial aspect, this project is at the heart of the process of reinforcing of the institutional sustainability of the organisation and as such is a very crucial step in ID-Ghana's development. The possibility that is offered to us today to team up with DED is henceforth of strategical importance for ID-Ghana.
